WORLD WAR TWO TIGER MOTH
KEN ELLIS REVEALS A SCHEME TO TURN THE TIGER MOTH INTO AN ANTI-INVASION WEAPON
Within days of the last troops having been evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk, a flying training school in Leicestershire was set to deal with German parachutists. Britain was braced for an invasion by sea and air, and one of the countermeasures proposed was to transform the humble Tiger Moth into a warplane.
Sqn Ldr George Reid DFC had flown with the Royal Naval Air Service in World War One and stayed on with the new-fangled RAF post-war, retiring in 1926. Reid turned his skills to inventing and devised a range of quality aircraft instruments. He approached Tommy Sopwith’s right-hand man and Hawker board member, Fred Sigrist, and the pair formed Reid and Sigrist Ltd in 1927.
